Budding Picassos at St. Joseph’s High School can now eat lunch and view the fruits of their labors – a decorative mural they painted in the lunchroom with help from an artist, whose work has graced the Whitney Museum and the Queen Mary 2.
Students enrolled in Smack Mellon’s art mentoring program were joined by the non-profit group’s president, Rebecca Graves, whose work has been solicited by several prestigious organizations, for the grand unveiling of a vibrant eye pleaser which took a month to complete.
Four students – three from St. Joseph’s, 80 Willoughby Street, and one from the Urban Assembly School of Music and Art, 49 Flatbush Avenue Extension – dedicated their afternoons and Saturdays to design and create the richly-textured masterpiece with help from two of their teachers and their principal.
Using Adobe Photoshop to create prototypes of the mural, Graves and artist Jeanne Gerrity taught students how to transfer the artwork onto the cafeteria wall.
Smack Mellon’s Art Ready program is designed to give high school students the opportunity of working like a professional in the visual arts.
